Studies in American History 
13 
Dutch government at once sent Van Berckel as minister,*^ 
and also appointed consuls at all the important Amer- 
ican ports.^® Sweden in 1783, Prussia in 1785, and 
Morocco in 1786 were the only other powers that made 
treaties during this period.^^ The importance of the Dutch 
commercial treaty must not be overemphasized, as treaties 
and laws in those days did little to determine the course of 
trade. But the fact that Great Britain and Spain had refused 
to sign commercial treaties with the American Revolutionists 
and continued to refuse during the entire period under con- 
sideration in spite of the efforts of American negotiators, 
left an unfriendly feeling in the Americans. For some time 
after the Revolution it was not considered patriotic to buy 
from the British agents. Patriotic associations were formed 
to prevent Americans buying British goods.^'^ Notices in news- 
papers summoned “Sons of Liberty” to attend to their coun- 
try’s commerce and to wait upon merchants selling British 
goods.^® State governments passed laws discriminating against 
the ships of those countries which did not have commercial 
treaties with America, against their goods, and against goods 
brought in their ships. This of course struck chiefly 
at the British. In some states the legislatures singled 
out the British specifically.^^ The effect of all of this discrim- 
inatory legislation was certainly not in proportion to the 
amount of legislation since the laws were enforced only about 
as far as the public enforced them by common consent, as the 
states failed to cooperate. For this reason the details of 
this legislation have not been incorporated here. The Dutch 
did not need special favors thru legislation in order to hold 
their own in competition with other carriers. A contemporary 
writer in speaking of the export of South Carolina rice states 
that the Dutch would be glad to contract to carry ten times 
the amount of the crop at a lower cost than was then charged.^® 
The Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, III, 389. 
^Uhid., Ill, 419, 420, 422. 
William Henry Trescott, The Diplomatic History of the Administrations of Wash- 
ington and Adams (Boston, 1857), 23; The Diplomatic Correspondence of the United 
States, III, 79. 
George Bancroft, History of the Fomnaticm of the Constitution of the United 
States (12 vols.. New York, 1882), I, 188; Journals of the American Congress, IV, 516. 
Boston Gazette, March 8, 1784. 
Report of Privy Council, 1791, Appendix A, xi, xvi ; Atcheson (ed.). Collection of 
Reports and Papers on the Navigation and Trade, 55. 
Carey, American Museum or Repository, II, 292. 
